This was published 10 years ago
Brisbane hotel shortage costs about 121,000 visitors a year: Mayor
Brisbane City Council will consider extending a moratorium for new high-end CBD hotels, potentially saving developers millions of dollars in fees.
Under the agreement which expires at the end of June, eligible four and five star hotel developers are exempt from paying council infrastructure charges if they start construction by July 2016.
Brisbane City Council will consider extending a moratorium on infrastructure charges in a bid to attract more hotel developers to the city.Credit: Jim Rice
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the council would discuss extending the fees agreement to attract more hotels to the city.
He said five developers had expressed interest in opening hotels in the CBD, some of whom wanted to build new sites from the ground-up.
Twelve new hotel projects have begun since the policy was announced in 2011.
Cr Quirk said the council did not want to create oversupply in the market, leading to low room rates which would be unattractive to investors.
In March, Cr Quirk said the lack of hotel rooms in the city meant Brisbane was missing out on 87,000 visitors a year.
On Thursday, he said the annual figure was 121,000.
“This lack of hotel supply is hampering Brisbane's ability to attract major events and conferences. This lost visitor expenditure equates to about 1100 jobs and $114 million in missed economic opportunity,” he said.
Cr Quirk said the council wanted to see between 215 to 330 new rooms in the city each year until 2022.
He said 575 new hotel rooms and 337 serviced apartments were expected to be added during 2014.
“The reality is for hotel developments, they are very hard to stack up financially. It's not as attractive as building residential units for example, and therefore the land prices are often excessive for hotel developments against other forms of development,” he said.
One of the newest additions to Brisbane's hotel scene include the Four Points By Sheraton, which opened during February.
The NEXT Hotel on Queen Street and the luxury Gambaro Hotel in Paddington are also new hotels due to open this year.